Sunday, January 23, 2011

New York Islanders: State of the Franchise

We have passed the midway point of the NHL regular season and the Islanders are plugging away near the bottom of the NHL standings once again.

That is not shocking to a lot of people. It is shocking to the Islander fans who are a group that have been the NHL's equivalent of the guy you keep playing the same joke on at the annual Christmas party and he keeps falling for it hook line and sinker.

The reasons we keep falling for the same joke is simple. We want so bad to believe that the Islanders can be an NHL power again. We root for this team and go to the games and watch the team so closely that we can taste that successful campaign when the season begins.

We all hear The Hockey News, TSN, ESPN, Newsday and local radio and everyone else tell us that the Islanders will be near the bottom of the heap if things go bad and maybe challenge for a playoff spot if things go perfect.

Well this season things did not go perfect. They went south before the first puck was dropped on this season. Injuries absolutely decimated this team over the first half of the season.

The injuries were so bad at one point that the Islanders defense, on paper one of the deepest in the NHL had 4 AHL call ups playing on the team at once.

So here the Islanders sit at the bottom of the league again even though it is mostly not any ones fault but fate.

Steady Dwayne Roloson and arguably the Islanders best player this season in James Wisniewski were traded away for draft picks and prospects.

The Islanders seasons over the past few years failures can all be traced to one thing. Bad streaks. Injuries lead to inconsistency. Inconsistency leads to losses. Many of them.

Islanders GM Garth Snow did a good job of shoring up the Islanders defense this season because he knew if he got the goals against down, it would equal less losses. Injuries took care of that plus.

Then comes the puzzling move of claiming Russian goaltender and in my mind the immensely over-rated Evgeni Nabokov who signed a deal with Detroit.

Nabokov is 35 years old and ran to the KHL for big bucks and wowed absolutely no one with his awful goals against average and save percentage in what everyone would agree is an inferior league to the NHL.

Why claim him at all? For what purpose?

IS he the kind of goaltender that's gonna rattle off 15 straight wins for the Islanders and get us back int he playoff hunt?

This isn't Dominik Hasek circa 2000.

Nabokov's NHL numbers are impressive at the NHL level. But he seriously hurt his credibility going to the KHL and stinking up the joint.

Now that the claim has been made Nabokov has refused to report to the Islanders.

That's where my problem with Nabokov grows beyond him just being a poor playoff goaltender.

You have to play by the rules. The rules state that is you play in any professional league other than the NHL you have to pass through waivers before the signing team has you.

If a team below wants that player you have to be prepared to lose him.

Remember Wade Dubliewicz? No one complained when the Blue Jackets claimed him off waivers when the Islanders tried to bring him back after Dubie went to the KHL.

Its part of the process.

Players can't be free to cash in from the KHL and just come in and sign with who they want for pennies for the hopes of winning a cup.

Nabokov chose to go the KHL. Now he has to deal with the consequences.

If I am Garth Snow what I do is this.

The Islanders have the right to hold his contract until next season. In other words if he doesn't play out his player contract that he signed with the Red Wings, he can become the Islanders property for all of next season at the same contract dollar amount.

After Nabokov (inadvertently or not) hangs up on his new general manager you can bet the Islanders are not going to just rescind their claim.

Jack Capuano has done a decent job as the new head coach of the Islanders but that "interim" tag hangs above his head like a guillotine.

I highly doubt the Islanders go after a big name coach.

I would expect that unless the Islanders totally tank the last part of the season that Capuano gets extended for a year to see what he can do with a healthy roster next season.

Five questions that need to be answered -

1) John Tavares will be entering the final year of his 3 year entry deal next season.Here is a guy you have made the centerpiece of your rebuild. Do you offer one of those long term mega deals like Mike Richards has?

2) Matt Moulson still has not been signed to an extension. Will he be moved out before the trade deadline?

3) Do you sign Jack Capuano to an extension?

4) Rick DiPietro's come back has had mixed results. Is there any chance of a buy out?

5) The Lighthouse Project is dead. We all know that. The Islanders lease is up at the end of the 2014-15 season. Which means that a deal on a new arena will have to be reached this summer for the arena to be completed by then. In maybe the most important question of them all - Will we have a deal for a new arena in place before next season?

2 comments:

you're right mr wang has so work to do. #1 get rid of rick. not a great goalie by any means, never was . #2 find some legs for tavares he looks tried at times. ease up on his ice time. don't burn him out! #3 find a proving coach that will keep this team from loosing games when they are winning with 5 mins to play.alot of points lost this and last year because of that. #3 get niederreiter in the lineup. a great talent not beening used.